Automated equipment for filling individual containers with flowable food products such as margarine, yogurt, ice cream, dairy products, and the like typically includes machinery for dispensing containers and presenting them to filling devices, and thereafter applying lids to the containers. Such automated equipment typically includes a conveyor arrangement for moving the containers past suitable filling devices, with lids thereafter applied to the individual containers for effecting closing and sealing. Stacks of lids are typically provided from which individual lids are taken for subsequent application to respective ones of the containers. To this end, lid applying machinery is known by which stacks of lids are fed to lid-applying transfer mechanisms for applying each lid to a respective container
The machinery for applying lids to the containers typically includes plural, parallel arrangements for holding stacks of the container lids. Such arrangements can include so-called spinners, which are arranged in parallel. Stacks of lids are positioned on adjacent ones of the spinners, with the rotating motion of the spinners advancing the stack of lids to the transfer mechanisms. This type of apparatus positions stacks of lids generally horizontally in a nonmoving state, with each stack spun at high speed on two rolls which act to orient the stack into a smooth running stack. Once this happens the stack will spin smoothly, allowing it to go through a stop gate, with individual lids pulled out with vacuum or shuttled with a coin type mechanism to an applicator.
Because the filling apparatus may have a number of filling lines in parallel, and because the lid-applying machinery may be positioned some distance above the floor of the filling facility, it can be difficult and time-consuming to continually replenish the lid-applying machinery with stacks of lids. Machinery which is wide may require that stacks of lids be placed on the machinery from opposite sides of the machine by workers. One of the reasons to use the automatic systems is that it is difficult to reach across many multiples of lanes on the filling machines to load the spinning/non-stackable lids. The spinners are located on the upper end of the machine so the operator already needs to be positioned up higher than the floor in most cases. The lids must drop down into position above the filled cups to be applied.
The sequence is as follows: the operator must grab a stack or take a sleeve from the corrugated shipping box. These sleeves or rows, which typically include quite a number (e.g., 100) of the lids are then let loose onto the spinning rods. For the most part, it is possible for an operator to load machines up to four lanes wide, with an average lid diameter. For example, one standard is a 409 lid with a center line of 4.5 to 6 inch on the cross pitch of machines. Exceeding four lanes of a machine this size, factories must either use one of an automated devices (centrifugal/vertical unscramblers), or must position operators (multiple) on both sides of the machine for loading. Undesirable increases in manpower and/or capital, and valuable factory floor space, are incurred.
The present invention facilitates placement of stacks of container lids on the lid-applying machinery. The present invention is particularly suited to above-described apparatus which “spins” the stack of lids for subsequent individual application to respective containers.